Breastfeeding is an excellent way for new mothers to bond with their babies while also providing ideal nutrition. But did you know breastfeeding can also help moms lose pregnancy weight? Breastfeeding requires extra energy, meaning you burn extra calories during each nursing session. So just how many calories does breastfeeding burn? Let’s take a closer look.
How Breastfeeding Burns Calories
When you breastfeed, your body produces breast milk for your baby. This process requires extra energy, which means you burn extra calories. Here’s a breakdown of how breastfeeding leads to calorie burn:
- Hormone production – Your body releases the hormones prolactin and oxytocin to produce breast milk. Releasing these hormones expends energy.
- Breast milk production – Your breasts take nutrients from your body to make breast milk. This requires calories.
- Breast milk ejection – You burn calories when the milk ducts in your breast contract to release milk.
- Increased metabolism – Breastfeeding boosts your metabolism, allowing you to burn more calories in general.
So in multiple ways, breastfeeding taps into your body’s energy stores and leads to increased calorie burn compared to not breastfeeding.
How Many Extra Calories Are Burned Per Session
Research has produced varying estimates on how many extra calories breastfeeding burns. The amount can depend on multiple factors, including:
- How long your baby nurses at each session
- How long it’s been since your last nursing session
- Your baby’s age
- Whether you pump in addition to nursing
However, most experts agree that exclusive breastfeeding burns around 500 extra calories per day. Here is a breakdown of the estimated calorie burn per breastfeeding session:
| Session | Calories Burned |
|---|---|
| First morning feeding | 100 calories |
| Daytime feeding every 2-3 hours | 70 calories |
| Evening feeding | 85 calories |
| Night feeding | 100 calories |
| Total per day | 500 calories |
As you can see, calorie burn ranges from 70-100 calories per session. You tend to burn more at the first morning feeding because your milk has built up overnight. Nighttime feedings also lead to higher calorie burn because your metabolic rate dips while sleeping.
Does Calorie Burn Change Over Time?
The number of calories burned per breastfeeding session can fluctuate as you continue nursing your baby. Here is how it changes over time:
- 0-6 months: Burning 500+ calories per day. Frequent feedings mean high calorie expenditure.
- 6-12 months: Burning 400-500 calories per day as feedings decrease.
- 12+ months: Burning 300-400 calories per day. Lower milk supply leads to fewer calories burned.
While calorie burn decreases over time, breastfeeding continues providing impressive calorie expenditure. Even after the first year, breastfeeding still burns up to 400 calories per day. Of course, calorie burn also depends on your individual nursing and pumping schedule.
How Breastfeeding Calorie Loss Compares
To understand how impressive breastfeeding calorie burn is, let’s compare it to other common calorie-burning activities:
| Activity | Calories Burned (30 minutes) |
|---|---|
| Breastfeeding | 140 calories |
| Walking (moderate pace) | 85 calories |
| Light jogging | 295 calories |
| Elliptical (moderate effort) | 215 calories |
As you can see, even a single breastfeeding session burns as many calories as a 30-minute walk. Over the course of a day, breastfeeding leads to calorie expenditure comparable to more vigorous exercise.
Breastfeeding vs Bottle Feeding Calories Burned
Another useful comparison is breastfeeding calorie burn vs. bottle feeding calories burned. Here’s how they compare:
- Breastfeeding: Burns 300-500 calories per day
- Bottle feeding: Burns less than 100 calories per day
Breastfeeding requires your body to manufacture milk from your stored fat and nutrients. Bottle feeding simply requires energy to hold your baby and rock them as they drink. So breastfeeding burns far more calories than bottle feeding.
Tips to Maximize Calorie Burn
If you want to shed pregnancy weight as quickly as possible through breastfeeding, here are some tips to maximize your calorie burn:
- Breastfeed exclusively – The more breast milk your baby receives, the more energy you’ll expend making that milk.
- Offer both breasts at each feeding – Switching breasts during a feeding requires extra milk production.
- Avoid skipping sessions – Keeping your milk supply up keeps your energy expenditure up.
- Pump after or between feedings – Pumping is additional calorie burn.
- Stay hydrated – Drink plenty of water to keep your milk supply ample.
Making small tweaks like these can help you burn those extra calories faster through breastfeeding.
Breastfeeding for Postpartum Weight Loss
Along with eating a balanced diet and staying active, breastfeeding can promote healthy postpartum weight loss. Here are some key benefits for weight loss:
- Burns 300-500 extra calories per day
- Boosts your metabolic rate so you burn more calories in general
- Helps shed leftover pregnancy weight
- Promotes the burning of fat stores built up during pregnancy
This makes breastfeeding an excellent complement to diet and exercise for losing the baby weight. Just be sure to eat enough calories to support milk production – about 500 extra per day.
Is Breastfeeding Enough to Lose Weight?
While breastfeeding provides impressive calorie burn, most experts recommend combining it with healthy eating, hydration and moderate activity to fully return to your pre-baby weight.
Relying solely on breastfeeding is often not enough of a calorie deficit for substantial weight loss for many women. So it’s important to maintain a balanced, nutritious diet and engage in some light exercise like walking.
With breastfeeding calorie burn plus diet and activity, most women can successfully shed pregnancy weight gain over the first 6 months postpartum.
Conclusion
Breastfeeding provides the perfect opportunity to bond with your newborn while shedding leftover pregnancy pounds. Each nursing session can burn 70-100 calories. Over the course of a day, breastfeeding can lead to 300-500 calories burned through milk production and other related factors.
Combine breastfeeding with healthy eating and activity, and most mothers can return to a comfortable pre-baby weight within several months. So take advantage of this built-in calorie burn and enjoy both improving your health and nourishing your baby through nursing.